Email Announcement Archive

[Users] NERSC Weekly Email, Week of April 20, 2020

# NERSC Weekly Email, Week of April 20, 2020 <a name="top"></a> #
## Contents ##
- [Summary of Upcoming Events and Key Dates](#dates)
## [Updates at NERSC ](#section1) ##
- [Normal NERSC Operations Continue During California Shelter-in-Place Period](#curtailment)
- [Join Us for the Inaugural NERSC Users Group Special Interest Group on Experimental Facilities Meeting on Wednesday!](#nugsig)
- [Last Chance! Jupyter Experience Survey Closes Sunday](#jupytersurvey)
- [Share Your Research, Images, Movies, and Journal Covers with NERSC!](#share)
- [Join the NERSC Users Slack Sponsored by NUG Today!](#slack)
- [New Cray Hyperparameter Optimization Tool for Machine Learning Now Available](#crayhpo)
- [New NERSC Cray Programming Environment/CDT Policy](#pecdtpolicy)
- [April Cori Maintenance Planned to Begin Tomorrow Evening (April 21)](#aprmaint)
- [April Software Additions on Cori](#aprcdt)
- [VTune Profiler Default Upgraded to 2020 & All Older Versions Deprecated](#vtune)
## [Upcoming Training Events ](#section2) ##
- [CUDA Training Series Continues May 13](#cudatrain)
- [OpenACC Training Series Continues May 28](#openacc)
## [Calls for Participation ](#section3) ##
- [Submissions for INFOCOMP 2020 Due May 18](#infocomp)
## [NERSC News ](#section4) ##
- [Missed the February 28 GPU Training? Videos Now Available!](#gputrainvids)
- [No Quarterly Allocation Reductions in 2020](#noquartlyreduction)
- [No New "NERSC User News" Podcast this Week](#nopodcast)
- [Come Work for NERSC!](#careers)
- [Upcoming Outages](#outages)
- [About this Email](#about)
## Summary of Upcoming Events and Key Dates <a name="dates"/></a> ##
April 2020
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8 9 10 11
12 13 14 15 16 17 18
19 20 *21*-22**23* 24 25 21 Apr NUG SIG Facilities Meeting [1]
21-22 Apr Cori Monthly Maintenance [2]
23 Apr SpinUp [3]
*26* 27 28 29 30 26 Apr Jupyter Survey Closes [4]
May 2020
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
1 2
3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 *13* 14 15 16 13 May NVIDIA CUDA Training [5]
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 *25* 26 27 *28* 29 30 25 May Memorial Day [6]
28 May OpenACC Training part 2 [7]
31
June 2020
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
1 2 3 4 5 6
7 8 9 *10* 11 12 13 10 Jun New User Training [8]
14 15 16 17 *18* 19 20 20 Jun NVIDIA CUDA Training [5]
21 22 *23* 24 25 26 27 23 Jun OpenACC Training part 3 [7]
28 29 30
1. **April 21, 2020**: [NUG Special Interest Group on Experimental Facilities Meeting](#nugsig)
2. **April 21-22, 2020**: [Cori Monthly Maintenance](#aprmaint)
3. **April 23, 2020**: SpinUp workshop
4. **April 26, 2020**: [Jupyter Survey Closes](#jupytersurvey)
4. **May 13 and June 18, 2020**: [NVIDIA CUDA Training Series](#cudatrain)
5. **May 28 and June 23, 2020**: [OpenACC Training](#openacc)
6. **May 25, 2020**: Memorial Day Holiday (No Consulting or Account Support)
7. **June 10, 2020**: NERSC New User Training (save the date)
8. All times are **Pacific Time zone**
- **Upcoming Planned Outage Dates** (see [Outages section](#outages) for more
details)
- **April 21-22, 2020**: Cori, ProjectA, DTNs, Globus
- **Other Significant Dates**
- **July 4, 2020**: Independence Day Holiday (No Consulting or Account Support)
- **July 6-12, 2020**: [SciPy2020](https://www.scipy2020.scipy.org/) Conference
- **July 21, 2020** NVIDIA CUDA Training Series
- **September 7, 2020**: Labor Day Holiday (No Consulting or Account Support)
- **November 26-27, 2020**: Thanksgiving Holiday (No Consulting or Account Support)
- **December 24, 2020-January 1, 2021**: Christmas/New Year Holiday (Limited Consulting or Account Support)
([back to top](#top))
---
## Updates at NERSC <a name="section1"/></a> ##
### Normal NERSC Operations Continue During California Shelter-in-Place Period <a name="curtailment"/></a>
Berkeley Lab, where NERSC is housed, is located in California, which is under a
statewide Public Health Shelter-in-Place Order for an indefinite period of time.
Under this Order, only essential businesses may remain open. NERSC is considered
an essential business due to its national importance, so we remain in operation,
but with the majority of NERSC staff working remotely and only a skeleton crew
onsite.
During this period, you can expect regular online consulting and account support
but no telephone support. All trainings will be held online, or postponed if
online is infeasible. Regular maintenances on the systems will continue to be
performed while minimizing onsite staff presence, which could result in longer
downtimes than would occur under normal circumstances.
Because onsite staffing is so minimal, we request that you refrain from
calling NERSC Operations except to report urgent system issues.
### Join Us for the Inaugural NERSC Users Group Special Interest Group on Experimental Facilities Meeting on Wednesday! <a name="nugsig"/></a>
The NERSC Users Group (NUG) has formed a new Special Interest Group (SIG) on
Experimental Facilities. The purpose of the SIG is to provide a forum for users
who process data from experimental facilities to discuss policies and tools
that are of specific interest to these users and to advise NERSC on how to
improve its support of these workflows.
The first meeting of the SIG will be this Wednesday, April 22 at 10 am
(Pacific). The agenda will be:
1. A presentation on best practices and tips for users from experimental
facilities running at NERSC
2. Organizational discussion
To join the meeting, please see <https://www.jlab.org/indico/event/383/>.
### Last Chance! Jupyter Experience Survey Closes Sunday <a name="jupytersurvey"/></a>
If you use Project Jupyter tools on HPC systems, we want to hear from you!
Don't forget to participate in the Jupyter Experience Survey before it closes on
Sunday! The survey requires only 5-10 minutes of your time to complete. Please
fill out the online survey at: <https://forms.gle/G4mS5KG158pQgVno8>.
Researchers from the Data Science and Technology Department at Lawrence Berkeley
National Lab (Berkeley Lab) are conducting a survey of scientific researchers
working with simulation and data analysis software at HPC facilities as part of
the Usable Data Abstractions (UDA) project. This survey will help us better
understand how such work is conducted using Project Jupyter tools (Notebooks,
Lab, Hub, etc.) supported at facilities like NERSC. The results will be used to
inform the development and deployment of next-generation workflow tools and data
abstractions to make them more intuitive to use and better match the way
scientists understand and think about their data, and to identify opportunities
to improve the NERSC Jupyter experience. **If your research work uses Project
Jupyter tools on HPC systems then we are seeking your participation in our
study**.
If you have any further questions about taking part in this study, please
contact Dr. Lavanya Ramakrishnan at 510-486-4384. Any questions you have about
your rights as a potential research subject can be answered by the Berkeley Lab
Human Subjects Committee at 510-486-6005.
### Share Your Research, Images, Movies, and Journal Covers with NERSC! <a name="share"/></a>
NERSC is always looking for stories, images, movies, and journal cover stories
related to research conducted at NERSC. Please tell us about your research using
the [NERSC Science Highlights Submission Form](https://www.nersc.gov/science/science-highlight-submit/)
and we could feature your work in our [news stories](https://www.nersc.gov/news-publications/nersc-news/science-news/),
[science highlight presentations](https://www.nersc.gov/science/science-highlights-presentations/),
and/or other NERSC presentations and reports.
### Join the NERSC Users Slack Sponsored by NUG Today! <a name="slack"/></a>
Are you interested in discussing NERSC happenings and issues with your fellow
NERSC users? Do you want to get or give some advice from a user perspective
about something in your workflow? If so, please join the NERSC Users Slack
workspace. For more information and a link to join, please see
<https://www.nersc.gov/users/NUG/nersc-users-slack/> (login required).
**Please note that this Slack workspace is not an official NERSC staff-supported
platform.** While NERSC staff may sometimes join the NERSC Users Slack, the
best way to reach NERSC is still through the online help desk at
<https://help.nersc.gov>.
### New Cray Hyperparameter Optimization Tool for Machine Learning Now Available <a name="crayhpo"/></a>
Are you interested in using NERSC resources for machine learning model selection
and hyperparameter tuning? Cray has made their new Cray-HPO library for
hyperparameter optimization available to our users. Cray-HPO integrates easily
with Cori and provides popular optimization algorithms like random search, grid
search, genetic search, and population based training, with more features being
added for future releases.
To get started with using the tools, please see our documentation page:
<https://docs.nersc.gov/analytics/machinelearning/hpo/>.
See also the presentation on hyperparameter optimization and Cray-HPO from our
[SC19 Deep Learning at Scale tutorial](https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1KJm08Ry4qJXOl19MAu2Ao1t_fRNaMwZn?usp=sharing).
Please submit a help desk ticket if you have any issues or questions.
### New NERSC Cray Programming Environment/CDT Policy <a name="pecdtpolicy"/></a>
NERSC has updated its Cray Programming Environment/Cray Developer Toolkit
(PE/CDT) policy. We have decided to change default software versions once per
year, at the start of the allocation year only. Exceptions to the policy include
major operating system upgrades and critical security flaws or software bugs.
Read the policy at <https://docs.nersc.gov/policies/CDT-policy/>.
### April Cori Maintenance Planned to Begin Tomorrow Evening (April 21) <a name="aprmaint"/></a>
The April monthly maintenance includes a Cori scratch file system check that was
rescheduled from March. The file system check is a lengthy process so instead of
starting the maintenance on Wednesday morning as usual, we will begin at 10:00
pm (Pacific time) tomorrow, Tuesday, April 21. At that time, Cori and the Cori
scratch system will become unavailable to users. Coinciding with this
maintenance we will also perform a short maintenance on the Data Transfer Nodes
(DTNs) during the first hour of the maintenance period. For the remaining time,
the DTNs will be up but in a degraded state due to the unavailability of Cori
scratch.
We expect that the maintenance will be complete and all systems returned to
users by 11:59 pm on Wednesday, April 22.
### April Software Additions on Cori <a name="aprcdt"/></a>
The Intel compiler versions 19.0.8.324 and 19.1.0.166 are now available on Cori.
During this week's maintenance, we will add Cray Developer Toolkit (CDT) version
20.03 to Cori. There will be **no software default version changes at this
time.** For a list of the new software versions available, please see
<https://docs.nersc.gov/systems/cori/timeline/default_PE_history/2020Apr/>.
### VTune Profiler Default Upgraded to 2020 & All Older Versions Deprecated <a name="vtune"/></a>
This week, the Intel VTune profiler version default has been upgraded to
version 2020. Version 2020 includes significant upgrades in functionality and
performance, and changes the names of the executables to simpler and
easier-to-understand strings.
While the older versions (2018.up3 and 2019.up3) remain on Cori, we
encourage you to upgrade your workflow to `vtune/2020`. The deprecated versions
will no longer collect performance data, but can continue to be used to read
and analyze existing performance data that was collected with these tools.
For more information on using VTune at NERSC, please see the NERSC VTune
documentation page at
<https://docs.nersc.gov/programming/performance-debugging-tools/vtune/>.
([back to top](#top))
---
## Upcoming Training Events <a name="section2"/></a> ##
### CUDA Training Series Continues May 13 <a name="cudatrain"/></a>
NVIDIA is presenting a 9-part CUDA training series intended to help new and
existing GPU programmers understand the main concepts of the CUDA platform and
its programming model. Each part will include a 1-hour presentation and example
exercises. The exercises are meant to reinforce the material from the
presentation and can be completed during a 1-hour hands-on session following
each lecture via teleconference or on your own. **This event will be held
exclusively online.**
The fifth training in the series covers CUDA atomics, reductions, and warp
shuffle. These operations can help you in cases where exposing parallelism is
not immediately obvious due to potential thread contention.
Following the presentation will be a hands-on session where participants can
complete example exercises meant to reinforce the presented concepts.
Registration for part 5 closes Wednesday, May 6. For more information (including
registration information) please see
<https://www.nersc.gov/users/training/events/cuda-atomics-reductions-and-warp-shuffle-part-5-of-9-cuda-training-series/>.
Other scheduled dates in the series:
- June 18: 6. Managed Memory
- July 21: 7. CUDA Concurrency
### OpenACC Training Series Continues May 28 <a name="openacc"/></a>
OpenACC is a directive-based approach to parallel programming for heterogeneous
architectures, where developers specify regions of code (written in C, C++,
or Fortran) to be offloaded from a host CPU to a GPU. This approach is meant
to reduce the amount of programming effort required of developers relative to
low-level models, such as CUDA.
**NVIDIA will present a [3-part OpenACC training series](https://www.olcf.ornl.gov/openacc-training-series/)**
intended to help new and existing GPU programmers learn to use the
OpenACC API.
Each part will include a one-hour presentation and example exercises. The
exercises are meant to reinforce the material from the presentation and
can be completed during a one-hour hands-on session following each lecture
(via teleconference) or on your own. **The May training will be online only.**
The May training covers data management in OpenACC. For more information and to
register, please see <https://www.nersc.gov/users/training/events/openacc-data-management-part-2-of-3-openacc-training-series-may-28-2020/>.
Remaining in the series:
- [Loop Optimizations with OpenACC (June 23)](https://www.nersc.gov/users/training/events/loop-optimizations-with-openacc-part-3-of-3-openacc-training-series-june-23-2020/)
Previously held sessions:
- [Introduction to OpenACC (April 17)](https://www.nersc.gov/users/training/events/introduction-to-openacc-part-1-of-3-openacc-training-series-april-17-2020/)
([back to top](#top))
---
## Calls for Participation <a name="section3"/></a> ##
### Submissions for INFOCOMP 2020 Due May 18 <a name="infocomp"/></a>
INFOCOMP2020, The Tenth International Conference on Advanced Communications and
Computation, is soliciting academic, research, and industrial contributions
presenting research and practical results, position papers addressing the pros
and cons of specific proposals, survey papers, and panel proposals.
The conference will be held in **Lisbon, Portugal** from September 27 to
October 01, 2020 -- please note the location change. The submission deadline is
**May 18, 2020**.
Please see the [INFOCOMP website](http://www.iaria.org/conferences2020/INFOCOMP20.html)
for information about the conference and the
[submission page](http://www.iaria.org/conferences2020/SubmitINFOCOMP20.html)
for submission details.
([back to top](#top))
---
## NERSC News <a name="section4"/></a> ##
### Missed the February 28 GPU Training? Videos Now Available! <a name="gputrainvids"/></a>
Did you miss the "Intro to GPU" training on February 28? Do you want to brush up
on what you may have forgotten about GPUs? Recordings of the training sessions
are now available on the NERSC YouTube channel in a
[playlist](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYUJN8AxZaY&list=PL20S5EeApOStGe26O8BxMAG4n_gKJVHRT).
### No Quarterly Allocation Reductions in 2020 <a name="noquartlyreduction"/></a>
We know that users don't like long queue waits or having unused time
automatically removed from their allocation balances. So NERSC is **eliminating
quarterly allocation reductions for 2020.**
Historically, NERSC automatically removed time from projects that were using
their allocation slowly and the time was redistributed to others, contributing
to a glut of allocation and long queue waits later in the year. While reductions
will not happen automatically, we remind you that the DOE Allocation Manager who
made your award has the ability to reallocate resources among projects during
the year to meet DOE priorities.
### No New "NERSC User News" Podcast this Week <a name="nopodcast"/></a>
There will be no new episode of the "NERSC User News" podcast this week as we
try to adapt to social distancing. We
encourage you to instead enjoy some of our most recent episodes and greatest
hits:
- [RAPIDS](https://anchor.fm/nersc-news/episodes/The-RAPIDS-Library-Nick-Becker-Interview-eb0h5a)
In this interview with NVIDIA RAPIDS senior engineer Nick Becker,
learn about the RAPIDS library, how it can accelerate your data
science, and how to use it.
- [IO Middleware](https://anchor.fm/nersc-news/episodes/IO-Middleware-Quincey-Koziol-Interview-eaf5r3/a-a1c7plt)
NERSC Principal Data Architect Quincey Koziol talks about IO Middleware:
what it is, how you can benefit from using it in your code, and how it is
evolving to support data-intensive computing and future supercomputing
architectures.
- [NERSC 2019 in Review and Looking Forward](https://anchor.fm/nersc-news/episodes/NERSC-2019-in-Review-and-Looking-Forward--Sudip-Dosanjh-Interview-ea5d5t/a-a1a6cpd)
NERSC director Sudip Dosanjh reflects upon the accomplishments of NERSC and its
users in 2019, and what he's looking forward to in 2020 at NERSC.
- [Community File System](https://anchor.fm/nersc-news/episodes/Community-File-System-Kristy-Kallback-Rose--Greg-Butler--and-Ravi-Cheema-Interview-e9d88q/a-a149hf5)
NERSC Storage System Group staff Kristy Kallback-Rose, Greg Butler, and Ravi
Cheema talk about the new Community File System and the migration timeline.
- [Monitoring System Performance](https://anchor.fm/nersc-news/episodes/Monitoring-System-Performance-Eric-Roman-Interview-e5g20m/a-aobd6p)
NERSC Computational Systems Group's Eric Roman discusses how NERSC monitors
system performance, what we're doing with the data right now, and how we plan to
use it in the future.
- [The Superfacility Concept](https://anchor.fm/nersc-news/episodes/The-Superfacility-Concept-Debbie-Bard-Interview-e5a5th/a-amoglk):
Join NERSC Data Science Engagement Group Lead Debbie Bard in a discussion about
the concept of the superfacility: what it means, how facilities interact, and
what NERSC and partner experimental facilities are doing to prepare for the
future of data-intensive science.
- [Optimizing I/O in Applications](https://anchor.fm/nersc-news/episodes/Optimizing-IO-in-Applications-Jialin-Liu-Interview-e50nvm):
Listen to an I/O optimization success story in this interview with NERSC Data
and Analytics Services Group's Jialin Liu.
- [NESAP Postdocs](https://anchor.fm/nersc-news/episodes/NESAP-Postdocs--Laurie-Stephey-Interview-e2lsg0):
Learn from NESAP postdoc Laurie Stephey what it's like working as a postdoc in
the NESAP program at NERSC.
The NERSC User News podcast, produced by the NERSC User Engagement Group, is
available at <https://anchor.fm/nersc-news> and syndicated through iTunes,
Google Play, Spotify, and more.
Please give it a listen and let us know what you think, via a ticket at
<https://help.nersc.gov>.
### Come Work for NERSC! <a name="careers"/></a>
NERSC currently has several openings for postdocs, system administrators, and
more! If you are looking for new opportunities, please consider the following
openings:
- [Software/DevOps/API Engineer](https://jobs.lbl.gov/jobs/software-devops-api-engineer-2611):
Work on the system that tracks and manages resource usage and help build an API
to automate the use of supercomputing resources.
- [Storage Systems Group Leader](https://jobs.lbl.gov/jobs/storage-systems-group-leader-2596):
Lead the group responsible for supporting NERSC's large-scale parallel file
systems and archival storage systems with an eye towards balancing performance,
stability, and usability for NERSC's over 7000 users.
- [HPC Network Engineer](https://jobs.lbl.gov/jobs/hpc-network-engineer-2580):
Be part of the team who shares in the design, implementation and on-going
maintenance of NERSC's high performance networks.
- [HPC Architecture & Performance Student Assistant](https://jobs.lbl.gov/jobs/hpc-architecture-performance-student-assistant-2537):
Summer internships in the
[Advanced Technologies Group](https://www.nersc.gov/about/nersc-staff/advanced-technologies-group/).
Areas of interest span from performance analysis for next generation
high-performance computing (HPC) architectures, power management and evaluating
OpenMP on accelerators.
- [NESAP Engineer](https://jobs.lbl.gov/jobs/nesap-engineer-2476):
Work as part of a multidisciplinary team composed of computational and domain
scientists working together to produce mission-relevant science that pushes the
limits of HPC in simulation, data, or learning.
- [HPC Architecture and Performance Engineer](https://jobs.lbl.gov/jobs/hpc-architecture-and-performance-engineer-2427):
Evaluate global technology trends and combine them with the needs of NERSC users
with the goal of architecting the supercomputing ecosystem of the future.
- [Application Performance Specialists (for ECP)](https://jobs.lbl.gov/jobs/application-performance-specialist-1010):
Help prepare large-scale scientific codes for next-generation high performance
computing (HPC) systems.
- [NESAP for Simulations Postdoctoral Fellow](https://jobs.lbl.gov/jobs/nesap-for-simulations-postdoctoral-fellow-2004):
work in multidisciplinary teams to transition simulation codes to NERSC's new
Perlmutter supercomputer and produce mission-relevant science that truly pushes
the limits of high-end computing.
- [NESAP for Data Postdoctoral Fellow](https://jobs.lbl.gov/jobs/nesap-for-data-postdoctoral-fellow-2412)
work in multidisciplinary teams to transition data-analysis codes to NERSC's new
Perlmutter supercomputer and produce mission-relevant science that truly pushes
the limits of high-end computing.
- [NESAP for Learning Postdoctoral Fellow](https://jobs.lbl.gov/jobs/nesap-for-learning-postdoctoral-fellow-1964):
work in multidisciplinary teams to develop and implement cutting-edge machine
learning/deep learning solutions in codes that will run on NERSC's new
Perlmutter supercomputer and produce mission-relevant science that truly pushes
the limits of high-end computing.
- [HPC Storage Systems Analyst](https://jobs.lbl.gov/jobs/hpc-storage-systems-analyst-1851):
Help architect, deploy, and manage NERSC's storage hierarchy (including Burst
Buffer, Lustre, and Spectrum Scale filesystems, and HPSS archives).
(**Note:** We have received reports that the URLs for the jobs change without
notice, so if you encounter a page indicating that a job is closed or not found,
please check by navigating to <https://jobs.lbl.gov/>, scrolling down to
the 9th picture that says "All Jobs" and clicking on that. Then, under
"Business," select "View More" and scroll down until you find the checkbox for
"NE-NERSC" and select it.)
We know that NERSC users can make great NERSC employees! We look forward to
seeing your application.
### Upcoming Outages <a name="outages"/></a>
- **Cori**
- 04/21/20 22:00-04/22/20 22:00 PDT, Scheduled Maintenance
*Cori will be unavailable to users between 22:00 on Tuesday 21
Apr and 22:00 on Wednesday 22 Apr. In particular, cscratch1
will not be available to users during that time.*
- **ProjectA**
- 04/21/20 22:00-04/22/20 22:00 PDT, Scheduled Maintenance
- **DTN**
- 04/21/20 22:00-22:59 PDT, Scheduled Maintenance
- 04/21/20 23:00-04/22/20 22:00 PDT, System Degraded
*DTNs will be available after scheduled maintenance, but will be
degraded with projectA and cscratch1 offline for scheduled
maintenance until 4/22 at 22:00 PDT*
- **Globus**
- 04/21/20 22:00-22:59 PDT, Scheduled Maintenance
- 04/21/20 23:00-04/22/20 22:00 PDT, System Degraded
*Globus will be available after scheduled maintenance, but will
be degraded with projectA and cscratch1 offline for scheduled
maintenance until 4/22 at 22:00 PDT*
Visit <http://my.nersc.gov/> for latest status and outage
information.
### About this Email <a name="about"/></a>
You are receiving this email because you are the owner of an active account at
NERSC. This mailing list is automatically populated with the email addresses
associated with active NERSC accounts. In order to remove yourself from this
mailing list, you must close your account, which can be done by emailing
<accounts@nersc.gov> with your request.
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